The Best of Friends
by Leanna
Summary: A missing scene from Book Five, where Harry finds out something about his godfather. SLASH! Remus & Sirius. Oneshot. Please RR!


**A/N:** It's me! Leanna! Told you you'd be hearing more from me about Remus and Sirius.

**Disclaimer:** You didn't really think I owned it, did you?

**Warning:** If not-the-sharpest-tool-in-the-shed Harry can figure it out, I'm sure you can. It's SLASH, kiddies.

**Rating:** K+

Just my version of how Harry found out about the "special friendship" between his godfather and his ex-DADA professor. It's a missing scene from book five – right between chapters six and seven. Except for a few minor things, I don't think it's too OOC.

Hey, it could've happened. :)

----- ----- ----- ----- -----

Harry needed to talk to Sirius. Until dinner that night, he'd hardly remembered that his trial was to be held the next morning, but now that he had, it was all he could think about. He needed a bit of reassurance, and he knew Sirius was the best person for it.

He had just reached his godfather's room and was about to enter, when he heard voices within. The door was open slightly, so he peered inside. Sirius and Lupin were standing in the center of the room, talking in hushed tones. Sirius was clearly upset.

"How am I supposed to just sit here?" He demanded furiously. "I can't just sit around here anymore, Moony! Not with that mad house elf and that damned portrait…"

"You think I don't realize what it's like for you to be back here, in this house of all places?" Lupin cut in, his voice even but somewhat tight. "Who listened to you rant all night the day you ran away? I know you never wanted to come back here. I know that it must seem sometimes as though you're back in Azkaban…"

"No." Sirius said suddenly, quietly. "Not Azkaban. You weren't with me in Azkaban."

He reached out a hand and traced the edge of Lupin's cheek. Harry pulled back from the door slightly. _Just a friendly gesture_, he assured himself as the hand dropped back to Sirius' side once more.

"I just don't want you to do anything rash." Lupin continued, his voice growing tighter. "We already lost twelve years, Sirius."

The two men moved closer until there was almost no space in between them. Harry's breath caught in his chest. Suddenly Sirius' eyes locked with his.

"Harry!" He exclaimed, pulling away from Lupin sharply.

"Sorry." Harry offered feebly, pulling the door open all the way, now that he had been found out. "I was just… erm, I mean, I was just looking for you…"

"Hullo, Harry." Lupin offered pleasantly, as though Harry had interrupted nothing of importance.

"I didn't mean to interrupt." Harry offered, nonetheless. "Look, I'll just be going…"

"Don't be silly." Lupin replied. "Stay. I was just off to talk to Arthur about tomorrow anyway."

With a last meaningful look to Sirius, he left presumably to do just that, leaving Harry and Sirius in awkward silence. Harry hadn't really seen anything out of the ordinary, but yet he had the strong feeling that he might have, had he not been spotted.

Sirius seemed extremely uncomfortable. He sat down on the bed and motioned for Harry to sit beside him. He cleared his throat.

"So what was it that you wanted to talk about?" He asked finally.

"Er… it's just tomorrow. Nerves, is all." Harry answered, suddenly feeling rather foolish.

Sirius' mood, however, seemed to lighten considerably.

"I'm sure you'll be fine, Harry." He assured him. "They haven't got a case against you at all."

"Except that I know the truth about Voldemort." Harry muttered. "That seems to be enough to condemn a person these days."

Sirius looked grim.

"That may be true," he admitted ruefully, "but you've got a lot of people pulling for you. This is going to come out on your side. You'll see."

"And if it doesn't?" Harry couldn't stop himself from asking.

"Well, then, we'll figure it out." Sirius answered. After a moment, he added in a more subdued tone, "I don't know why you'd want to, but you'd always be welcome back here."

Harry smiled.

"You don't know how much better that makes me feel." He told Sirius, looking genuinely relieved.

Sirius returned the smile, somewhat reluctantly.

"Come on, off to bed, you." He said, pushing Harry gently towards the door. "Need to get some sleep to fight those dragons tomorrow."

When Harry was back in his own room though, he couldn't sleep. It wasn't the thought of the trial that was keeping him awake, so much as it was his curiosity about the bizarre scene he had interrupted between Sirius and Lupin.

Resigning himself to the fact he wouldn't be getting much sleep that night, he pulled himself out of bed and crept into the hall. At first he wandered aimlessly about the old house, trying not to make any noise, but eventually he found himself in a small room that might have been a library at one time. The walls were lined with shelves that still held a few moth-eaten books, all with terrible names, like "One Hundreds Spells For The Vengeful Wizard" and "Common Household Hexes".

He was reaching for the latter when a voice stopped him.

"I wouldn't touch those if I were you." Sirius said from the doorway. "Might lose a finger."

Harry withdrew his hand and faced his godfather sheepishly.

"Couldn't sleep." He muttered.

Sirius laughed.

"Can't say I blame you." He replied.

Suddenly something seemed to occur to him. His face lit up in an excited grin.

"Hold on." He said, walking towards the window and tapping on the floorboards. "I think I have something that would interest you more than those old books."

Harry was about to ask what on earth his godfather was doing, when a portion of the floorboards suddenly pulled back revealing a small opening. Sirius removed what appeared to be an old photo album. It was positively caked in dust.

He blew on the cover, sending the dust flying. He motioned for Harry to join him as he sat in one of two armchairs tucked in the corner of the room.

"I always hid things under that floorboard." He said with a slight smirk. "Even after I ran away, it was still my favorite hiding place."

At Harry's confused glance, Sirius added, "An apparition spell, of sorts."

Harry was still confused, but he was more anxious to see what the album Sirius was clutching held within its binding.

Sirius cracked open the cover and held it so Harry could see. The first picture was of Sirius, Lupin, Harry's father, James, and – Harry noted with a scowl – Wormtail.

"That was about third year, I think." Sirius told him.

"What's dad looking at?" Harry asked.

James seemed to be gazing avidly at something off-frame. Sirius snorted.

"Evans, no doubt." He answered. "Seemed like every other day he was asking her out. She tried out some bloody wicked hexes on him too, your mum."

Harry laughed.

"What made her change her mind about him, then?" He asked.

"Dunno." Sirius replied. "Remus might though. She and he were always close. Told each other everything, practically. She was the first one he told about…"

Sirius broke off abruptly.

"About being a werewolf?" Harry finished uncertainly.

Sirius seemed relieved for some reason.

"Er… yeah." He said. "Yeah. She knew by the end of first year, I reckon. But it took James and I 'till around third to figure it out."

"But anyway, she was never too fond of me." He added.

Harry was taken aback.

"She wasn't?" He asked. "But you were dad's best friend. I thought…"

"Oh, she tolerated me all right. I just mean we were never as close as she and Moony." He said with a smile. "And she was always telling him he shouldn't put up with me, that he could do so much bet–"

Sirius stopped himself abruptly once again and cleared his throat, quickly flipping the page. This time it was just Remus, sitting outside, reading. Every once in a while he would glance up and them and smile slightly, before returning to his book.

"You should have seen the look on his face, the first time his saw us transform." Sirius said, forgetting his discomfort as his face lit up with the memory. "It was brilliant. Made it worth all those hours in the library…"

He flipped the page again. This time the picture was of Sirius, his arms around some girl Harry didn't recognize. Sirius flushed slightly and tried to turn the page, but Harry stopped him.

"Who's she?" He asked, amused at the embarrassed expression on Sirius' face.

"I don't know." Sirius answered shortly. "Some girl."

"You don't remember her name?" Harry asked. "She's hanging all over you!"

"Yeah, well we couldn't all be like James." He muttered defensively. "Not all of us picked out a soulmate first year and then stalked her until seventh."

"Had a lot of girls then, did you?" Harry asked, still smirking.

Sirius got even redder.

"That's not what I… I mean…" He sputtered. "Well, in my defense I didn't realize I was setting an example for my godson…"

Harry couldn't help but laugh a bit at Sirius' obvious discomfort in discussing this with him.

"What about Lupin?" He asked, changing the subject. "Did he have a steady girlfriend?"

Sirius, however, didn't seem any more comfortable with this subject than he had with the subject of his own love life.

"Erm… I don't know." He answered. "Not really, I guess. More interested in his studies, I think."

He flipped the page again, eager to find a less revealing memory. This one was of Harry's mum and dad, along with Sirius and Lupin. They were in a booth of some sort, like those at the Three Broomsticks – though Harry didn't think that's where they were. They all looked extremely happy and were toasting to something. James was wobbling slightly.

"Is my dad drunk?" Harry asked, incredulously.

Sirius laughed.

"Well, it wasn't just James. We all had a bit too much to drink that day, I think." He said, shaking his head slightly.

"What were you celebrating?" Harry asked.

"I think your mum and dad had a row earlier that day. Remus and I, too, if I remember correctly." He answered. "But we all, quite on accident, ended up at the same bar and we all made up with one another."

"And then proceeded to get smashed?" Harry finished.

Sirius laughed again.

"Precisely." He said.

"So what were you and Lupin fighting about?" He asked.

Sirius looked rather uncomfortable for a moment. He looked down at his feet.

"Oh, erm. It was nothing." He said, unconvincingly. "I don't remember, now. It's been years."

Harry found it hard to believe that his godfather would be able to remember all those other details but forget what they had been fighting about. He took a minute to study the picture further. The four looked so happy together, no tension between them at all. He started slightly as he realized that Lupin was clutching Sirius' hand.

He looked up at the older Sirius sitting next to him, but he was still gazing at the carpet. Harry looked at the picture again, and then thought back to the scene he had witnessed earlier. It was like someone had turned on a light switch inside his head.

He fought the urge to let out a triumphant, 'Ah-ha!'

"Didn't deserve his forgiveness, though, I'm sure." Sirius was adding softly.

"Look," Harry said, flipping forward a few pages, "here's one of just the two of you."

Sirius quickly snapped the book shut.

"I think that's enough for tonight." He said, his voice a bit funny. "You need your rest. Big day tomorrow."

He stood up and Harry reluctantly followed suit, but made no move to leave the room.

"You know," he ventured tentatively, "if there was anything you wanted to… erm, tell me, you could, you know. Tell me, that is. It's okay."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Sirius murmured, pointedly avoiding Harry's gaze. "Time for bed I think."

"Alright." Harry agreed reluctantly. "Tell Lupin goodnight for me, then."

"I will." Sirius replied automatically.

At Harry's sudden grin, Sirius seemed to have realized what he'd just said.

"I didn't… I mean…" He tried, but it was too late.

Harry simply smirked, as he headed back upstairs towards his room. Sirius slumped back down into the chair he had just vacated.

"Oh, bloody hell." He muttered towards the old photo album which had fallen open once again where he had dropped it on the table.

The seventeen year old versions of he and Remus stared back at him from the page. He picked up the album with a slight smile, watching as Remus pulled him into a tender kiss. It was definitely not a kiss between two friends.

----- ----- ----- ----- -----

Teehee. That was fun to write. Hope you enjoyed it. Please review!


End file.
